Capitol Crossing in DC is as GREEN as it Gets - DC New Construction

The Michelin Guide recently teased out its latest picks for the 2023 edition. When I read their description of Bar Spero's location I thought at first they had the location off, citing it as "set within the trendy Capitol Crossing development in the East End neighborhood". I don't know about you but when I hear "east end" I'm thinking either Southeast or Northeast, right? So I looked it up to make sure I still have a handle on where the east side of my native city is and, behold, it's in Northwest according to Michelin.

To be specific Capitol Crossing is in the former no-man's-land that ran adjacent to the 395 tunnel just  east of Chinatown on the south side of Massachusetts Ave NW. DC has been doing a lot of work rebuilding and reconnecting parts of the city that were previously inaccessible and poorly planned. Capitol Crossing is one of these. The answer to the question: "how do we make our city more livable?" is to fill in the forgotten spots and make these areas safe and accessible to everyone. And make it sustainable.

"Capitol Crossing is one of the biggest city design efforts undertaken in the nation’s capital in decades. The 2.2 million square foot complex will restore three city blocks constructed in air rights space above Interstate 395 on a cutting edge sustainable platform. This major urban design, infrastructure, and economic development project will include offices, housing and 70,000 square feet of retail in five new mixed-use buildings three blocks from the US Capitol." SOM Architects

Capitol Crossing was completed in 2020 but if you haven't been to that particular 10 acres of DC you may not know much about it. You may know that DC has some very progressive rules about all new buildings being GREEN and LEED certified and was named the first LEED Platinum city in the world by the US Green Building Council in 2017.  Well DC is keeping the faith and when a whole city block is being built from the ground up amazing things can happen. 

More from SOM Architects: "The project is designed to meet the highest standards of sustainability, much of which is made possible through features integrated into the platform. SOM’s high-performance design solution goes beyond LEED criteria by incorporating district-wide energy cogeneration, a centralized water collection and reuse system that will treat more than 90 percent of stormwater runoff, and eco-chimneys that employ biofilters to clean exhaust and other toxins from the highway and integrated parking structure, returning clean air to the environment." Wow.  All the roofs are green, too.

And don't forget to check out newly Michelin-starred Bar Spero at 250 Massachusetts Ave NW, on the east end of Northwest ;)